WINNIPEG -- The United Firefighters of Winnipeg is calling on the city to order vacant buildings that have experienced a fire be demolished.
The call comes after a fire Wednesday on Maryland Street in a vacant building that had already been the site of a previous fire in the summer.
The fire fight Wednesday saw neighbours forced from their homes as a precaution, and the street closed for hours.
In a phone call with CTV News, the firefighter union’s president, Alex Forrest, said there are safety concerns with entering vacant homes previously damaged in fires, but there’s an expectation firefighters do so due to the possibility someone could be inside.
He said this puts firefighters at risk, and homes damaged in fires should be torn down.
In a statement to CTV News following the fire, the City of Winnipeg said the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service has no ongoing responsibility for a building after a fire.
“Once the scene is released, the property is the owner’s responsibility to remediate through repair or demolition. However, the City can order the immediate demolition of a building if the building represents an imminent hazard, such as significant structural issues.”
Fort Rouge – East Fort Garry city councillor Sherri Rollins, chair of the protection, community services and parks committee, said she understands and is sensitive to the concerns of firefighters, but Rollins said there are already ways the city can deal with the problem, through the vacant buildings bylaw.
“The number one intent of the vacant buildings bylaw is to reduce the risk of fire, reduce the safety hazards for firefighters and emergency personnel and urban blight,” said Rollins.
Rollins said the city has been cracking down on the owners of vacant and derelict buildings with “stiffer and more robust fines.”
She said when property owners fight the fines, the appeals committee is not reducing the penalties because of the dangers and risks some of these buildings can pose.
Still, Mynarksi Coun. Ross Eadie said more needs to be done to rip down buildings that are unsafe.
“I support the idea but I will point out it’s not just a danger to the firefighters, it’s a danger to the neighbourhood,” said Eadie. “I think they should be torn down immediately, especially if it’s been a vacant derelict thing on our list for a long time.
“Many of these vacant homes – even before there’s a fire in it – there’s people in there doing drugs.”
-With files from CTV’s Jon Hendricks
